Bitcoin, the explosion continues (today's high on Mt.Gox $750!)

As I write this, BTC is trading on Mt.Gox at $433, down from today's high of $446 but still up $60 from 48 hours ago. BTC is the very stuff of
conspiracy theories--springing into existence in 2010, the creation of the mysterious individual or group known only as Satoshi Nakamoto, who gifted
BTC to the world before promptly disappearing months later.

According to blockchain.info there is approximately 11956300 BTC in circulation which is worth about $5,224,903,100 at current prices. BTC/USD
rates roughly doubled between 10/3 and 11/4 and then again by 11/13.

Fresh off Mt.Gox ticker:

Last price: $726.75042 High: $750.00000

11969540 BTC in circulation @ $725 = $8,677,916,500. The Winklevi are richer than ever. Even if you've never possessed a Bitcoin wallet, this
is something worth taking note of.

Like Malware that turns your PC into a Bitcoin miner for some shady group...

This is getting scary...

Not so much now. CPU mining has been dead for a long time as soon as ASICs hit the market, GPU mining for BTC was dead. I've been part of a small
mining operation for a while and we're using 20 GPUs to get about 10mhash/s ~7.5 LTC per day. It's been profitable for us all along because we've
been powering our rigs for "free."

Earlier today there was the first senate hearing on Bitcoin broadcasted live on C SPAN.
Bitcoin to Congress: Take Me Seriously

Bloomberg previews Bitcoin to Congress.

Update:

In testimony prepared for the hearing before the SenateHomeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, federal law-enforcement agencies
said that while the anonymity and decentralized nature of some virtual currencies could pave the way for fraud, they also held potential
benefits.

That's all well and good but from what I see the majority of people can't get their money out of bitcoins and robbery is rife. A bitcoin could be
worth 1 million dollars but isn't going to replace any real currency any time soon or hold it's value. It's been over inflated by gangs and hackers
and has zero credibility

Hey - Wait a minute...I'm pretty sure I have some of them from back when they first came out - I did a little mining along with my seti@home stuff.
Of course I'll never find any info about them as it was about 6 computers ago...

This is no different than share floats, I have seen them in the first 2-3 months the price goes up to several times original value, 4 months later its
worth lless than what originally bought for. What does Bitcoin have backing it? Gold, property, plant? Its being held together by hot air at the
moment.

Unless you have thousands of dollars to spend on a processing unit, it is pointless to pursue bitcoins.

When Bitcoins first hit the scene it was easy to mine them because it didn't require a lot of effort for a computer to solve the algorithms for
bitcoin mining.

Now you need multiple processors combined with teams of other people's processors just to mine a fraction of one bitcoin. Not to mention any money
you make would go towards your massive power bill.

Why is the price of Bitcoin rising? Easy, because it takes such an incredible amount of computation just to mine one. So back to square one.... if
you were one of the lucky ones to snag them when it was easy then you reap the benefits.

Well, if I was a Bitcoin millionaire a year or so ago, I would sell in a heartbeat now! What would that do to the "currency" to have that many sold
and flooding the market? Wouldn't others with lots get scared as well and sell? Would that not devalue this "currency"?

I was in about two years ago mining after the first big crash (from $50 back down to $3). For the poster above who said it's getting harder to
mine....that's the point.

At first it was supposed to be easy to mine because it was the "discovery" phase. Now there are billions of dollars around the globe tied into
Bitcoins and payment processing systems are being developed rapidly.

You better believe this isn't going away and has real value. Chase sent me a letter saying my business account couldn't send international wires
anymore. Okay, no problem. I sent my international business partners Bitcoin payments now that don't get charged fees and arrive instantly. He can
then convert them on the fly to the currency of his choice.

My company will also begin accepting Bitcoins as payment for our software products here shortly. It's great for us because we'll save about $15 in
transaction fees per purchase. Over the course of thousands of transactions a year that really adds up.

Look for the value of Bitcoins to continue to go up exponentially because of their scarcity. There will only ever be 20 million Bitcoins in
existence. I don't know that it will ever be a primary currency, but I see it getting at least 50x bigger as the market expands and coins are
destroyed. So in the future a Bitcoin may be worth $50,000, but they're divisible up to 8 decimal places so if 50 million people get involved
worldwide in Bitcoin (we're probably close to that number now) you have to start dividing them up into fractions of a coin.

The fact that governments can't manipulate them artificially is absolutely huge. Bitcoin is a currency by the people and for the people. When
people fully understand what that means you'll see the price explode even more than it already has. Bitcoins can be transferred to any currency on
the fly so if the dollar crashes you can convert to Euros or wait until another currency emerges and transfer at that point without getting grossly
devalued.

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